Researching Robert Shaw

Shaw's other notable film roles include From Russia with Love (1963), Battle of Britain (1969), Young Winston (1972), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Robin and Marian (1976) and Black Sunday (1977).

Beginning his career in theatre, Shaw joined the Royal Shakespeare Company after the Second World War and appeared in productions of Macbeth, Henry VIII, Cymbeline, and other Shakespeare plays. With the Old Vic company (1951–52), he continued primarily in Shakespearean roles. In 1959 he starred in a West End production of The Long and the Short and the Tall.

He led his regiment at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. They attacked a beachhead near Charleston, South Carolina, and Shaw was shot and killed while leading his men to the parapet of the Confederate-held fort. Although the regiment was overwhelmed by firing from the defenses and driven back, suffering many casualties, Shaw's leadership and the regiment became legendary. They inspired hundreds of thousands more African Americans to enlist for the Union, helping to turn the tide of the war to its ultimate victory.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he was raised in Revelstoke, British Columbia. He received a degree in engineering from McGill University in 1933. In 1937 he started as an engineer with the Foundation Company of Canada, rising to become its president.

After Expo, he was vice-principal of administration at McGill University until 1971. He then became Canada's first deputy minister of the environment. In 1975 he became president of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He retired in 1985.

In 1967 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

In 1935 he married Johann MacInnes. Their only son, Robert Jr., a commercial airline pilot, was killed in a plane crash in 1966.

He was born in New Perth, Prince Edward Island, the son of Robert Shaw and Jane Williams, and educated at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and Dalhousie College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Shaw then studied law and was called to the bar in 1870. In 1873, he married Florence Yuill. He lived in Charlottetown.

Shaw died in office in Charlottetown at the age of 36.

His brother Cyrus also served in the provincial assembly.

Born in 1872 into one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Boston, he was a first cousin of Robert Gould Shaw (called RGS). As an adult, RGS II gained a reputation for alcohol abuse and promiscuity. His first wife was Nancy Witcher Langhorne, and they had a son, Robert Gould Shaw III (called RGS III or "Bobby"). RGS II and Langhorne divorced after four years of marriage. She moved to England after some time, where she met and married Waldorf Astor, who later succeeded his father as Viscount.

RGS II married again and had another son, Louis Agassiz Shaw II. Both of his sons suffered from depression, alcoholism, and legal difficulties. Bobby was arrested in England for homosexuality, and committed suicide in 1970. Louis Agassiz Shaw II murdered his maid in 1964. He was determined to be unfit for trial and was remanded instead to McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital where he resided for nearly the rest of his life.